SUPERNATURAL

This gem-like, brief anthology provides thoughtful people with both an introduction to the paranormal and a reason to take a fresh look at it.

Nostradamus, channeling, Atlantis, divination: Most serious people consider such topics nonsense. But look again. Writing with intellectual verve and a deeply critical mind, religious thinker Richard Smoley explores and reconsiders the supernatural in history and today.
Western religion is a house divided. We are often conditioned to think of the Judeo-Christian tradition as the only valid, historically accurate, and even rational spiritual philosophy. Occultism, magic, and theesoteric are, by contrast, considered illegitimate, delusional, and lacking in intrinsic value. In SUPERNATURAL, noted religious thinker Richard Smoley challenges this prejudice, revealingthat Western occult traditions are richer and more impactful than most of us imagine. He reveals the hidden diamonds and neglected ideas that characterize the magical tradition in the West. If a reader has ever been curious about an arcane subject – from Atlantis to psychical powers to Nostradamus – here is a book that gives a complete yet concise, critical yet serious, and always respectful account of topics from the unseen world. Supernatural is a brilliant and brief primer to the hidden occult and magical history of the West that many readers, from goth kids to grad students, hunger for. One of today’s most highly regarded writers on esoteric topics, Richard Smoley is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Oxford. He was a longtime editor of the venerated spiritual journal Gnosis. Smoley is the author of books including Inner Christianity, The Essential Nostradamus, and Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism. He currently works as editor of Quest Books and of Quest: Journal of theTheosophical Society in America.